I watched this on TV once. It was sort of cool I guess, but I didn't like it as well as I thought I might. Of course, I never read any of the comics, but it's a cool concept. Anyway, I guess I never got around to writing a review, and don't remember alot of details now. But since I later saw a couple of "Hellboy Animated" movies that I liked, I figure maybe someday I'll watch this again and write a review. Hopefully I'll also have a better appreciation of the movie the second time around.
Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms
IMDb; official website; Wikipedia
This is, of course, based on Dark Horse comic books which I've never read. But I guess it's also meant to share continuity with the live-action movie that came out a couple years before this, and the main characters (Hellboy, Liz, and Abe) are voiced by the same actors that played them in that movie. Anyway, I thought the animation in this film was pretty good, and I loved all the Japanese stuff. And the swearing was fun, but largely I think that was because it's a bit uncommon to hear such stuff on Toonami. Anyway, Hellboy is a pretty cool character.
So, I suppose I should describe the movie's plot, a bit. In case you don't know Hellboy's backstory, um... I guess some Nazis opened a portal to Hell in 1944, and they were like trying to get a demon to fight for them or something. A baby demon came through, but he was rescued from Nazis by the good guys, where he was raised in secret and taught to be a good guy himself, and now he's a part of a covert international organization (the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) that fights supernatural threats. There's also a woman named Liz Sherman who can create and manipulate fire, and an aquatic man named Abe Sapien, and well... plenty of other folks. This movie also has a paranormal researcher named Kate Corrigan and a psychic named Russell Thorne.
A Japanese folklore professor finds a scroll and reads it, then is possessed by ancient demons Thunder and Lightning, and we see the legend of a daimyo who promised them his daughter if they'd stop destroying his village or whatever, and they agreed, but then a samurai who was in love with the girl fought and defeated the demons, trapping them in the Sword of Storms. The daimyo was angered that he had been dishonored... not that he wanted to give away his daughter to demons, of course, but he had given his word, and now that word had been broken. So he prayed to the gods, who I guess turned the samurai into a statue, like a terra cotta warrior or something, and the daimyo killed his daughter. Well, now this professor goes to some collector of antique swords and stuff, and tries to steal the sword, apparently. But he couldn't do it, the sword, like, wouldn't let him touch it, I guess. But there was some heavy damage done to the place, and the BPRD got involved.
Hellboy, Kate, and Russell went to Japan to investigate the crime scene, and Hellboy picked up the sword, then found himself in another dimension or whatever, a folklore version of feudal Japan, it seemed. He encountered various mythical creatures and whatnot, got into a bunch of fights, and eventually learned that if he broke the sword, he could return home, but it would also release the demons. Meanwhile, Kate and Russell were still investigating things, looking for the professor or whatever. And there were storms cropping up around the world I guess, and Liz and Abe investigated that, and had to fight a monster. And eventually Hellboy broke the sword, though it seemed unintentional, and he found himself back in real, modern-day Japan, and Thunder and Lightning were there, and he fought them, and then there were ghosts of the daimyo, his daughter, and the samurai, and um... I dunno what else to say.
Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron
IMDb; Wikipedia
The present-day story is interspersed with flashbacks to a related mission Professor Broom was involved with back in the 30s. He, along with a young priest and some other guys were searching for a young woman named Anna (who we kinda liked), who had been abducted by a vampire named Erzsebet Ondrushko (who we kinda liked). Anna's fiancee was also among the search party. Unfortunately, they were too late to save her, but the Professor did manage to defeat Erzsebet. Interestingly, the flashbacks seem to occur in reverse order throughout the film. I suppose that technique has been used fairly often in recent years, in films I haven't seen yet, so it may not be that innovative, but it was fairly fresh for me. The priest is clearly having a major of crisis of faith by the end of the mission (in the first flashback), so it's interesting to see him go from that state to one of confidence in his faith in the later flashbacks, which are set earlier. His deterioration will also become important in the present....
Anyway, in the present, the Professor, Hellboy, Liz, Abe, and a new BPRD recruit named Sydney Leach (who is a human metal detector) head off to investigate a reportedly haunted house which has recently been purchased by some rich guy who's friends with a senator or whatever, who is involved in the financing of the BPRD. Which was the only reason the organization was even going to get involved, though it was considered low priority, until the Professor spoke up and suggested they all go- including himself. But he didn't want to say why he thought it important.
The guy who bought the place wanted to turn it into a sort of tourist attraction, exploit the ghosts. But the ghosts turned out to be victims of Erzsebet, whose possessions the guy had had shipped over from Europe. We learn that she had been a witch who bathed in the blood of young women to maintain her own youth and beauty, and later became a vampire. Now the two witches who originally trained her- who were very old, ugly, and creepy even back then- are trying to revive Erzsebet. So, the BPRD has to try to prevent the ceremony from being completed.
Well, there's also a bit of a subplot about the goddess Hecate (who we kinda liked), who Erzsebet and the witches worshipped. She's been watching Hellboy and doesn't understand why he concerns himself with mortals, since he's a higher being like herself. Eventually, he'll have a confrontation with her. And... there's not much else I can say right now, because I had recorded the movie on TV and when I watched it, it turned out the end didn't get recorded. So I'll have to wait to get the DVD to finish watching the movie and writing this review, but I can say that what I did see so far was fairly cool and all....